It's only July, but it might be time to start loading up on blankets and sweaters. Oil spiked to a new trading record as hostilities rise between the West and Iran -- raising the likelihood that this winter's heating bills will be the priciest yet.

Ouch. Despite being in the Deep South, my heavy utility bills are not for summer air conditioning (high ceilings and ceiling fans keep my a/c use low and summer bills reasonable), but in January and February, when it can get cold by Gret Stet standards/construction standards.

Cheeseheads, Hardhats...What's the Diff?Maybe they were Steelers in the alternate universe...

Hullabaloo's right--if this had been done by a Democrat, the spittle-flecked rage from wingnuttia would've generated the sort of media avalanche that eventually forces the slightly less shrill to report on the reports, if nothing else...and it would've been fodder for the various television and radio chatterers until firmly planted in the collective consciousness/social mythology, along with the "lesson" that "people take sports seriously" and should "not be looked down upon" for doing so, blah blah blah.

But, since it's a Republican...it's ok.

Remember John Kerry getting the treatment last election (part of what Jerome Doolittle described as "permafuck") re: NASCAR--which included a bit of cynical gerrymandering when it came to the actual quote in order to make him appear even more patrician and effete?

The middle photo is apparently the original--of the remaining two, one was done up by yours truly, the other by the Iranians to possibly "cover a grounded missile that may have failed during the test." But I'll bet the Iranians had more than a Stone Age era version of the program and a run of the mill workstation.

Oh, and it'll take me a few days--or more--to come up with a version of Bill-O that competes with VF's....

Nixon and Bill Clinton both lost in court attempting to invoke the doctrine; Clinton managed to negotiate what amounted to a settlement...the Bush administration has gone WAY above and beyond in asserting the claim, which is about as undemocratic as things get.

Personally, I'd just as soon see Karl Rove assigned to an extended stay at, oh, I don't know, LSP...although I'd settle for him doing time in one of the cells at the Capitol...

Update: Meant to add, though, that with the Democrats in Congress caving on warrantless wiretapping, the odds are they'll likewise cave on this...damn weenies.

Phil Gramm's dissing of America as a 'nation of whiners' certainly has a 'takes one to know one' quality to it, but it will be interesting and instructive to watch how the media runs with this...something tells me Gramm won't get the full Reverend Wright treatment, despite the fact that he deserves it.

Oh, and while I obviously retouched the picture, it's not far from the truth. On any given day, you can find someone selling shrimp or crawfish out of a truck along the roadside almost within sight of the Center, while Southside Produce is just a little further down.

And a fair number of Democrats, including presumptive nominee Obama, aided and abetted (as did Landrieu, of course.)

Well, if there's any justice, maybe we'll soon find out just how decadent and depraved certain Senators are (I'm thinking about YOU, Orrin Hatch--audio link), as they discover just how much privacy they've chunked into the ashbin.

Linda Esparza and her son Tommy Yager can be added to the list of thousands of families feeling the effects of formaldehyde in the trailers FEMA sent to the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina.

"Fatigue was a big, big problem," Esparza said.

"It would be cold, flu like symptoms," Yager said.

But they didn't live in the trailers. They built them, in Indiana, for an RV maker, Gulf Stream Coach.

Sad to say, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if the GOP, their wingnut howler monkey chorus, and associated loons blamed THIS set of victims, given that they've repeatedly blamed the citizens of New Orleans for the failure of ACOE built levees.

By early 2006, the Gulf Stream Coach plant was cranking out more than 100 trailers a day--about three times normal production. That’s a pace, former employees say, that quickly forced the company to turn to low-quality materials.

This, despite the fact that Gulf Stream received a half billion dollar government contract.

OK, maybe that's a little harsh: by my math, it looks like it came to $10,000 per trailer, which I'll assume is a "reasonable" price. However, as we all know, thousands of these trailers ended up...in Arkansas, where they've been surplused or auctioned off (probably at a loss), while those that ARE being used are little more than toxic holding cells.

No, the very real problem is that our government--or, at least, the GOP--no longer gives a rat's ass about its own citizens. Hell, they rarely even call us "citizens" these days, preferring the rather patronizing term "consumers." Who apparently are little better than prisoners at this point.

It's instructive that no one in the mainstream press ever notes or otherwise points out that today's GOP NEEDS terrorism, because FEAR OF TERRORISM is a if not THE central tenet of their governing philosophy and claim to power. Likewise, no one seems to point out that George W. Bush's ever more shrill insistence for telcom immunity in the FISA bill is, at the very least, a smoking gun indicative of criminal guilt...and worth looking into.

Countries have been invaded on FAR flimsier evidence, as we now regretably know.

Vice President Dick Cheney's office pushed for major deletions in congressional testimony on the public health consequences of climate change, fearing the presentation by a leading health official might make it harder to avoid regulating greenhouse gases, a former EPA officials maintains.

They should force the son of a bitch to live next door to an oil refinery when he leaves office.

The state's Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks took more coffee makers, cleaning supplies and other items.

Plastic containers ended up with the Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration.

Colleges, volunteer fire departments and other agencies received even more.

But the Mississippi hurricane victims who originally were intended to receive the supplies got nothing, a CNN investigation has found.

While it's nice that the press has FINALLY started to take a look at the mix and match of incomprehensible incompetence and sheer butt-ugly venality of the Bush adminstration, THREE YEARS after the fact is, to put it diplomatically, a little fucking late in the game, assholes. Your own drooling incompetence allowed Team Bush to write the narrative, i.e., "Mississippi Miracle," "Grandma Blanco in over her head," etc., etc.

Perhaps the most egregious example was/is nodding along and dutifully scribbling when Dana Perino--or whatever douchemook it was--averred that it "wasn't the time" to assess blame...even as Karl may-he-one-day-rot-in-hell-with-Jesse-Helms Rove spun like a top on crystal meth, and as it was stunningly clear that the fault lay with the Bush administration.

At this point, the facts hardly matter. The myth has been fed to and digested by a public that, thankfully, recognizes the taste and taint of Team Bush chickenshit. And I doubt they're in the mood for more from McCain.

Monday, July 07, 2008

Out of Sight, Out of Mind...and 25 Years Later

Here's a report on free market efficiency. Profits? Check. Assuming liability for an obscenely horrific chemical leak that killed thousands, maimed even more, and remains a severe health hazard a quarter century later? Not so much.

I'm old enough to remember the first reports of this disaster quite well, and have tried to at least kind of, sort of keep it in mind. A number of years ago I believe the Nation ran a report that mentioned the miserly compensation that Dow-Carbide hasn't even paid out to all the victims or survivors. A local man observed--correctly--that the life of a Bhopal citizen was worth less than that of a purebread dog.

And, somewhat related...isn't it about time some journalist ASKED whether or not Rethuglicans really want to stop terrorism? You know, a strong case could be made for "NO," starting with the fact that fear of terrorism has been THE central focus of the GOP for the last eight years, justifying $1 trillion dollars for war, the trashing of the Constitution, etc. etc.

Maybe the Rove playbook should be used AGAINST him...that is, hit their perceived strength. The GOP has no vested interest in stopping terrorism...in fact, stopping terrorism would badly hurt them politically. Perhaps the public should be made aware of that fact.